Death at Intervals by Jose Saramago

This is the book I am currently reading. According to the front of the cover (BTW, I love the cover art - minimalist but oh so cool!) Jose Saramago is the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature.  After further research, I discovered that Saramago won the Nobel Prize in 1998, ten years ago - you can read more about that here. 

This is Saramago's newest work and was published in English in 2008. The book has been translated from Portuguese and was published originally in Lisbon in 2005. I don't know if it's because it's translated, but this is one of the most difficult works of fiction I've ever read. Now, I'm not a stupid person [honest!!], but this is a darn hard read. I think it is because the book doesn't actually have characters or a story as such. Instead, it is written in the third person with long rambling paragraphs and no dialogue. The sentences average probably 50 words, with lots of commas, the paragraphs go for pages and there are no capital letters apart from at the start of sentences.

When I try to tell people about this book, I am often asked "why do you keep reading it?" The answer is, quite simply, it is fascinating. The premise is as follows:

On the first day of a new year, starting at midnight, nobody dies. People hovering at death's door, continue to hover. People continue to age, continue to be injured in accidents, etc, but nobody dies. Initially, the public are elated by this apparent immortality until the reality sets in - overcrowded aged care facilities, hospitals, etc. No business for funeral homes. No more afterlife in the Catholic church. The implications are wide reaching and examined in detail in the first third of the book. 

This situation continues for seven months. Then, strangely, death writes a letter to the public stating that she will return to her job as of midnight. In future however, everyone will be given 7 days written notice prior to dying - to allow them time to finalise their affairs and say their goodbyes. The stated intent is to provide people a chance to ready for death, but of course this new policy terrifies the general population: everyone dreads getting a death notice in a violet envelope.

The book continues in this vein - I haven't finished it yet so that's probably enough for the moment. It is quite bizarre and very unusual. I only read this book on the bus, because it's just too hard to curl up on the couch with it and half an hour is plenty to digest in one go. It's really a thinking kind of book and examines really interesting philosophical, moral and ethical questions in a fascinating way. Saramago's style reminds me a little of Milan Kundera - fiction but with a really philosophical slant.

Not recommended as a light read, but if you are wanting to try something totally different, give it a go!